As well known, a refrigerator serves to store food items therein in a cool state and includes a refrigerator main body having a cooling chamber, a door for opening and closing the cooling chamber, and a refrigerating cycle for supplying cool air to the cooling chamber.
The door includes an outer case forming an external appearance, an inner case disposed in the outer case with a filling space for a foaming agent and door caps respectively disposed at an upper end and a lower end of the outer case and the inner case.
However, the door of the refrigerator according to the related art has a problem that it is easily marked and scratched since the outer case is implemented as a metallic member coated with paint. Thus, a door assembly configured by disposing a panel implemented as a transparent stiff member such as a glass member on a front surface of the outer case is currently used so as to solve the abovementioned problem.
In order to support the panel, the door assembly may include an upper cover and a lower cover respectively coupled to an upper end portion and a lower end portion of the door main body and side covers respectively coupled to a left side portion and a right side portion of the door main body. The side covers are coupled to the door main body using a plurality of screws.
The side covers are provided with screw head receiving portions in a concave shape so as to prevent head portions of the screws from being protruded from surfaces of the side covers. The screw head receiving portions may be generally formed using a drill.
However, in the door assembly according to the related art, the screw head receiving portions should be formed one by one by an operator in a cutting manner such as a drilling manner so as for the head portions of the screws to be received in the side covers, thereby increasing a fabrication time.
And, peripheral portions of screw holes should be cut in a thickness direction so as to form the screw head receiving portions, which may cause the side covers to be thicker as much as the peripheral portions are cut. Accordingly, materials for fabricating the side covers may be increased.
Also, size variation may largely occur depending on skillfulness of the operator for the screw head receiving portions, operation environment, etc, which may cause inferiority of the side covers. That is, if each depth of the screw head receiving portions is greater, strength of the screw head receiving portions may decrease.
On the other hand, if each depth of the screw head receiving portions is lower, the head portions of the screws may be outwardly protruded. In this case, the protruded heads may contact with peripheral items, which causes inferiority such as scratch. Concretely, when the screw head receiving portions are formed on a front surface of the door main body of the side covers, the protruded screw head portions may contact with the panel and scratch the surface of the panel, thereby causing inferiority of the panel.